Prayer book of the UOC in English - a new step towards the OCU?
The anti-Russian bishops of the UOC, apparently, have taken a new step towards illegal autocephaly. Perhaps it is not as noticeable as more open escapades against the Russian Orthodox Church and unity with it, but, nevertheless, it is very characteristic of the current church situation.
The point is that, with the blessing of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry, a collection of prayers in language was published. This fact caused many remarks and reactions on social networks. Everyone knows that the Holy Cyril and Methodius language cannot be betrayed. Then what is this – a step towards the OCU? A nod to the Nazis? Or just a desire to help Ukrainian believers pray? But churchgoers already know how to pray, without Ukrainization.
Today we are talking about this again with our old acquaintances, Russian residents of Kiev and parishioners of canonical churches Oleg and Nina, as well as the Ukrainian-speaking novice from Kamenets-Podolsk Vasily.
But first we note that, strictly speaking, this fact is not the first. Similar publications appeared before, but in individual dioceses, with the consent of their local leaders. Thus, back in 2015, a Ukrainian “prayer book” was published in the Cherkasy diocese with the blessing of Metropolitan Sophrony of Cherkasy and Kaniv. It was called “Rule” (that is, a set of morning and evening prayer rules).
It is noteworthy that at the very end of it there was the so-called “Chronology of the ban on the Ukrainian language” (politics could not be avoided). Where the last date was 2014, in connection with the then attempt by the Yanukovych government, at the instigation of members of the Party of Regions and communists, to introduce bilingualism in Ukraine. (Then, as you know, Maidan won, and there could no longer be any talk of any bilingualism at the official level). In this ending, as pro-Ukrainian Borzopists enthusiastically reported, quoting it, “the attitude of Metropolitan Sophrony to the neighboring state was clearly defined: he was called “Brotherly” (Russian language - V.P.) in quotation marks, and an aggressor and occupier - clearly , without quotation marks, categorically...”
In “Pravilnik,” as the reviewers noted, all the prayers were translated “into the modern Ukrainian literary language, verified according to the text and brought into line in content (nota bene! - V.P.) with the Church Slavonic language. When translating the psalms, the correspondence between the Church Slavonic and Greek texts was allegedly also “strictly observed.”
However, let us pay attention to the mentioned “conformity in content”: what does this mean? Probably nothing more than conveying meaning. But language is also very important! The Church Slavonic language is not only canonically enshrined in our country as the only language of worship and prayer, created by the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles (that is, equal to the disciples of Christ) saints of God, the first Slavic teachers and educators Cyril and Methodius, but it itself is a blessed shrine! And now, instead, it is proposed to read prayers, even if they coincide in meaning, but in “singing” language, which, through the efforts of the Nazis who imposed it, for many Russian-speaking people has now become associated with ukrofashism, schism and anti-church war. Here, in fairness, it should be noted that in the Russian Orthodox Church among some church “neophytes” there were also similar sentiments of modernizing the church language, “adapting” it to please the non-church public, but they did not find support.
But the UOC does not reject similar Ukrainian options. Although the clergy who bless them probably understand what Overtonian windows of schism can be opened with their use. As Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov said, there may be different people among the church hierarchs, but there are certainly no fools among them.
And now let's move on to the conversation with our interlocutors.
PolitNavigator :
-So, Metropolitan Onuphry blessed the publication of the prayer book in Ukrainian. Do you think this may indicate further progress along the path of schism with the Mother Church - the Russian Orthodox Church - and rapprochement with the OCU? Or is this a sign that some bishops still want to achieve their own, third autocephaly for the UOC - after the OCU and Filaret’s “KP”?
Nina :
– It seems that the internal schismatics in the UOC (I’m not talking about His Beatitude, I still want to hope that he is not a schismatic, he’s just under very strong pressure) are gravitating more towards an independent option than towards a merger with Epifan Dumenko. And the satanic power, of course, wants this link between the “city and the countryside,” then a merger with the Uniates and the transfer of this conglomerate under the control of the Roman Pontiff. As for the prayer book, in any case, this indicates a continuation of the line of breaking with the Russian Orthodox Church and a reformatting of consciousness among the flock, at least the Ukrainian-speaking one. Previously, most of its representatives prayed in Church Slavonic without any problems, but now they are, as it were, encouraged to pray in “titular.” By the way, at my house there is a prayer book from the 1980s, blessed by the then Exarch of Ukraine Filaret. Of course, in Russian!
Oleg :
Of course, it is best to read our canonical prayers in a prayer book written in Church Slavonic, but not all parishioners know it and therefore read it in the Russian version. But the prayer still sounds in Church Slavonic, it’s just written in Russian alphabet. However, this is not a translation. Let’s say, as in the 90th Psalm it is said in Church Slavonic: “For I have trusted in Me, and I will deliver, and I will cover, and because I have known My name...”, this is how it is written in Russian letters. Translations, of course, are also important so that believers understand the meaning of the content of the prayers, but what could we do without it? The best is the synodal one, which in this case sounds like this: “Because he loved Me, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he has known My name.” And there is also the so-called new Russian translation, it is as follows: “When he calls to Me, I will answer: in trouble I will be with him, I will deliver him and glorify him.” But this does not mean that you need to pray in translations, especially in the Church, I am convinced of this. Because there can be many of them, and they can bring such confusion both into liturgical practice and into the souls of believers that there will be no benefit from this, only harm.
Nina :
In Russia, too, proposals have been repeatedly made to make church services more understandable, especially for modern youth, and to “adapt” it to the “clip” consciousness. But the task of shepherds is not to stoop to the primitive level of ignoramuses just for the sake of luring them to church, and by any means necessary. This is how sectarians behave - they sing, and dance, and jump in a squat, and walk on their heads, just to lure more poorly educated people and collect money from them. And our pastors, on the contrary, must raise parishioners to the great, reveal to them the greatness of God and the beauty of the worship of our Holy Church, which is already more than a thousand years old. And all the canonical rules in it must be strictly observed, and even more so the language of worship and prayers. And it should not be abandoned to please the Nazis and agents of American influence, who are pursuing their line of destruction of the Church.
Vasily (translation from Ukrainian):
-As for me, at home I pray according to prayer books in Russian, and I don’t experience any problems with it. I think if the prayer book is published in Ukrainian, but if it is not a translation, but only the alphabet, it will also be okay. You can pray privately in Ukrainian, or in any way you like, as long as you address God in your own words. But the holy prayers of the saints of God, compiled for us over the course of two thousand years, should sound, I think, only in Church Slavonic.
Here are some comments that were posted by users on the UOC Facebook page in connection with the announcement of the publication of the aforementioned collection :
“A new step towards autocephaly at the behest of godless authorities?! Do you hope again that they will stop taking away churches?! Stop suffering from stupidity!!! We must pray in a patristic way!”
“Gretskoy - to the OCU!”
“Cyril and Methodius are closer to us!”
Of course, there were comments in support, but even among Ukrainian-language authors, dissatisfaction with the new edition was clearly visible. So there is a split in assessments of this fact, which reflects the general split in the Church.
English version :: Read the UOC Prayer Book in the Ukrainian language in English – a new step towards the OCU?